Walking around my house you would think we have forgotten about Christmas. No kind of whimsical ornaments with sparkles and glitter. No tree top star or angel; in fact not even a Christmas tree! However we do have a pile of pretty Christmas wrapped presents in a corner of our house (because all know that’s what REALLY people like about Christmas)

Blasphemy you say? What kind of people are we from down under? The intense heat must be sucking the Christmas cheer out of the Aussies.

No it is not that. Simply, we do not need it to know it is Christmas.

You might be thinking about why we adopted this approach. No it is not some black lash at the selling/buying of Christmas cheer or the uncontested promotion of Christmas as the ONLY holiday going on right now( shout out to my Hanukkah and Kwanzaa party people!)

Other things remind us that Christmas is here. Also as terrible as this sounds, the process of taking down Christmas decorations ranks up there with one of the world worst jobs.

Here are thing that make my Christmas

Intense sticky kitchen environment; The weather does a number on my kitchen making it like sauna (I think I have spoken about that before too)

The overflow of gifts from my mother’s work mates; she is very loved by her work place ( why wouldn’t she; she brings them left over cake and desserts!)

The winding down of family life; during the year my family do not have time for “family time”, so Christmas means we able to have a meal as a WHOLE family not just one or two of us.

Sleeping; Oh boy the amount of naps have sky rocket recently (combo of heat and the scheduling of cake orders I have)

My kitchen is filled with the warming scent of bread baking (yes I am taking advantage of the heat for a quick rise of bread)

Lastly and I think the most important; I get to watch Christmas cooking specials without looking crazy! Yep, All the famous chefs that have a Christmas video; I have probably seen it.

I really do not have any traditions or fare to my Christmas it is simply about play, resting and cake. I think that is loveliness of living in Australia is that there is no one Christmas everyone does anything they want; Lasagne and dim sum at Christmas? Why not? As long as it taste good.

Have you got traditional rocking this year? Or gone minimal. I would love to hear what other people do.

Now this slice is my attempt to work whole grains and natural sugar in my baking. While the addition of Tim tams and Peanut butter cups do cancel out of efforts; they can be easily sub with nuts or dried fruit.

I do not like icing on sliced cakes when it is hot. Speaking of which; Sydney is reaching the 30C; so icing and heat never mix. However I still wanted to look a bit pretty so I push some chopped PB cups, and Crushed Tim tams in the top: The base of the cake is inspired and adapted from this snack cake I found on My darling Thyme; her version is very bright and summery.

I think Christmas deserves a little more indulgence; don’t you? I changed the texture of my slice to be more like snack cake rather than a bar by grounding down 2/3rds of the quinoa flakes and using corn flours instead of brown rice flour. Yes I have left out the raw sugar but I really do not think you need it when you have 200g of Peanut butter cups and a packet of time tams in this slice.

The honey acts a wonderful complement to the peanut butter and chocolate tone. One you bite in to slice, you are hit with of the malted good ness of the time tams then it gives way to a soft and tender crumb studded with melting pockets of Peanut butter She writes about the subs on the blog, so go look her slice (her photos are stunning too!) Happy whatever you do peeps!

200g chopped up Peanut butter cups.(Ditto to the chocolates in this slice)

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 28 x 18cm slice tin with grease proof with 2 cm extension on each side.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, mixing well to combine.

Combined oil, thick honey, soy milk and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until melted together. Set aside to cool.

Pour into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Whisk in eggs and mix well. Fold through 2/3 soft the crushed Tim tams and half of peanut butter cups.

Spread in you prepared tin. Sprinkle remains of the Tim tam and PB cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden around the edges and firm to the touch in the centre. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool before slicing.

1. on Foodgawker, I’m not sure if you get to write what we see about the photo, but it says “naturally sweetened with tim tams”… so it’s not quite naturally sweetened, lol. and 2. soy milk: look into switching to another nondairy milk, soy is so so bad for you!!!